Can Your Body Survive an Earthquake?

Surviving an earthquake can be a traumatic experience, even if it is only a minor quake. It is always nice to come back home and find the house is still standing, but just because the house is still standing doesn't mean there wasn't any damage. After an earthquake we need to check for any cracks in the wall, make sure the roof isn't leaking, check the plumbing and electrical systems, and make sure there are no gas leaks. If we are fortunate, there may be only a few broken dishes and glasses, and a few books on the floor.

Fortunately the human body is designed to survive an earthquake much better than a house. Our bodies are flexible, and our spine has built-in shock absorbers. This is a good thing because everyday activities can shake and jolt our bodies just as much as an earthquake. We don't have to be football players, or participate in an extreme sport such as parkour to shake our bodies up — our everyday lives will do the trick too.

Stress and injuries to our bodies can be just as damaging as an earthquake is to a house. If we were to think of our bodies as compared to a house, our spine would be compared to a load-bearing wall. And just like a house, we have an electrical system running throughout our bodies known as the central nervous system. And when we are injured, or our bodies are under a lot of stress, our spine is often misaligned, which in turn affects the central nervous system. When our nerves are irritated, pinched, or under pressure from inflammation, our bodies will not function as optimally as they should.

Activities and Sports

Jogging and running can jolt your body equivalent to someone hitting your heel with a hammer at 1.5 to 3 times your body weight — depending upon how fast you were running. Sports like baseball, golf, tennis and other racket sports routinely put stress on your lower back and core as you twist your body as fast and as hard as you can. Everyday activities such as cleaning the house, carrying groceries, picking up your children, and even sitting too long (especially with bad posture) put stress and strain on your muscles and spine.

Over time, the bending and twisting of everyday activities and sports, as well as the muscular effort and hard contact common in many sports, will cause misalignment in the spine, putting pressure on the nerves, which can also lead to disc degeneration, disc herniation, and even osteoarthritis.

Injuries Add Up

While it is obvious how accidents and falls can directly affect the spine, many people are unaware that muscle strains, sprained or torn ligaments, and even broken bones can have a negative effect on the spine and nervous system. Most people tend to protect any injury by relying on and overusing the parts of their body that are not injured. This causes an imbalance in our musculature and posture as we favor one side over the other. When this happens, the muscles on one side of the body are exerting more pressure on one side of the spine then the other. This will cause misalignments or subluxations in the spine.

Over time the wear and tear of old injuries and repetitive movements can take a toll on our bodies. Many end up facing a lot of pain as they age, or have to give up doing the things that enjoy.

Here are a list of some of the activities and injuries that can add up over time. Some of these activities cause problems due to improper form.

So it is important to remember as we rehab from our injuries that we also need to make sure our spine is in proper alignment.

The Warning Signs

Pain is the ultimate sign that something is wrong with our bodies. Only 10% of our nervous system feels pain, so often many problems may have been festering for years before we feel pain. But pain is not the only warning that something is wrong. Since the nervous system controls every organ, muscle, and action we make, subluxations (misalignments) putting pressure on, or pinching, our nerves will show up as other problems.

Subluxations in the cervical spine, or neck, can cause problems such as headaches, vision problems, high blood pressure, dizziness, fatigue, and even make your allergies and asthma worse. See our article on the cervical spine.

The lower back, or lumbar spine, contains the strongest vertebrae in the spine and is supported by your core muscles. Subluxations to the lumbar spine can cause sciatica, constipation, infertility, lower back pain, and more. You can learn more in our article on the lumbar spine.

Chiropractic Care and Your Body

After your house has been through an earthquake, you call a specialist to check and make sure everything is right. A leak in the roof or the water pipes could lead to black mold. A short in the electrical system, or a leak in the gas line could cause a fire. Structural damage needs to be repaired.

Every day we are bending over and picking things up, exercising, running, sitting too long, and dealing with stress. Our bodies pay the price, absorbing the jolts and punishment — just like a house during an earthquake. A chiropractor is a specialist who makes sure that all the vertebrae in your spine are properly aligned and that your nervous system is functioning optimally.

Some of the benefits available from regular chiropractic care.

At Kempsville Chiropractic, we know the wear and tear of everyday life will cause subluxations, or misalignments, to the spine. We work with our patients to make sure their spine is properly aligned, helping them maintain their active lifestyle. Chiropractic care gently restores the spine to proper alignment, increasing range and function to the joints in your body, taking the pressure off the nerves, reducing pain, accelerating healing, and allowing your nervous system to function at its best.

Subluxations should not go untreated or they will lead to additional problems. Contact Kempsville Chiropractic at 757.467.5258 to arrange for a consultation with one of our doctors. If any of your friends and family can benefit from this article, please recommend this article to them.

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You are welcome to link to this article. Kempsville Chiropractic has been proudly serving Virginia Beach, Virginia; Chesapeake, Virginia; and Norfolk, Virginia since 1996.

The contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Lombardozzi. The information on this site is not intended as medical advice. The information contained on this website is a sharing of knowledge based on the experience and research of Dr. Lombardozzi and his staff. Dr. Lombardozzi recommends that patients make their health care decisions after doing their research and consulting with a qualified health care professional.

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